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Keith Martin
Aug. 13th, 2008
05:24 pm - Olympics - A New Approach
The news that the spectacular "footprints in the sky" part of the Beijing Opening Ceremony was actually faked up with CGI comes as a disappointment. On the other hand, it must be a huge relief for the London Olympic Committee, who were surely panicking at the thought of having to top the Chinese effort. I mean, if CGI effects are permitted, then we're home free.
We may not have the mega-budget. We may not have a national heritage that we're allowed to talk about anymore. But we do have some excellent digital effects houses who are used to working to tight schedules and low budgets (i.e. for the BBC).
Yes, I am saying: "Let's just fake the entire Opening Ceremony."
After all, the whole thing is mostly for the TV audience anyway. The VIP guests don't really want to be sitting in a draughty stadium, when they could be watching the whole thing on big-screen TVs in a bar somewhere.
We have four years to do this. Let's get started. A hundred digital acrobats, a thousand synchronised dancers. A re-enactment of Caesar's invasion of Britain. With elephants. Why, the Walking With Dinosaurs people alone could provide us with a huge cavalcade of prehistoric monsters. All at a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer. You know it makes sense.
In fact, this could be the answer to all our Olympic problems. No-one seriously believes that the new stadium and attendant complexes will be finished on time and under budget, so stop building them now. Just rent a few dozen acres of set-aside farmland in a cheap county somewhere and hold the Olympics there. The digital image of a state-of-the-art stadium can then be CGed into the background for the broadcast.
I really think I'm on to something here.
Jun. 28th, 2008
08:09 pm - Doctor Who (The Stolen Earth)
That was the most shameless piece of self-indulgent fanfic writing I have seen in a long time.
That was superb, that was.
[UPDATE: On the other hand, it would be nice if Journey's End made sense at some point.]
Jun. 15th, 2008
10:53 pm
Looking at the most recent Doctor Whos, I'm struck by the contrast in approach between Davies and Moffat, which may perhaps say something about how the programme will change in 2010. (Or then again it may not.)
( Some ramblings on different futures... )
Oct. 26th, 2007
04:43 pm - The Clatter of Redundant Hippos
The first batch of people at work reached their redundancy date today. Other departments are being kept on for different lengths of time, according to some plan that they haven't explained to us.
There's a big, open lightwell between our floor (where everyone is staying on for the moment) and the floor above (where everyone finished work today). It was hard to know how to react as we had to carry on working to the sounds of partying by 200 slightly manic people upstairs who had, after all, just lost their jobs.
The sounds of music and loud voices echoed down to us for much of the day, along with a strange, loud rattling noise that we couldn't identify. Eventually, curiosity led me upstairs, where I found that someone had set up a Hungry Hippos game in the midst of the tables of food and drink, and the staff were taking it in turns to bash away at it.
Strange day.
Our section is the last to go, at the end of April. It'll be a big, lonely, empty building by then.
Oct. 6th, 2007
08:58 pm - Robin in the Hoodie, Season 2
Just saw the first part of season 2 of the BBC's "Robin Hood". I'd given up on it a few episodes into Season 1 but dipped back for the last episode (and the one with the ninja ballerinas). Wasn't remotely impressed, but I thought I'd have a glance at the new season.
Am I coming down with the flu and starting to hallucinate, or has it actually got a bit better?
The tone is darker, the sheriff suddenly has a motivation beyond just being evil, and they've come up with a reason why Robin doesn't just put an arrow through the sheriff's chest. There's some actual characterisation and a degree of tension that the first season totally lacked
On the other hand, Robin and Marion are still wet and weedy, I can't tell the rest of the outlaws apart, and the "humour" is frequently awful.
Overall I slightly enjoyed this episode, which is worrying me.
Sep. 17th, 2007
06:47 pm - Testing
Being a first entry and a test.
Not sure yet if I'll be one of those people who posts huge and frequent ramblings, or one of those who doesn't get around to making an entry from one year's end to the next.
Possibly both.